New Scam? About 2 Crore Indian Students' Data Selling Online For ?299
Confidential data of students could be at risk as the website surfaces selling 200 crore students data for just Rs 400.
Confidential data of students could be at risk as a website claiming to sell 2 crore students data for just Rs 299.
Off late, we¡¯ve been seeing confidential data of users being sold on the dark web by hackers like the ones with Mobikwik, Domino¡¯s and others.
Indiatimes
Also Read: 8.2 TB Of MobiKwik User Data Allegedly Hacked, Company Denies Breach
However, now someone is claiming to sell user data of crores of Indian students.
The data is being sold on the website ¡®studentdatabase.in¡¯ that gives you an option to either purchase a database of two crore students or purchase a 100 crore pan-India database -- each for Rs 399. However, when we tried to click on either of the links, the site showed a 404 error.
What about the data?
There are several issues with this, to begin with. For starters, we don¡¯t really know how the data was sourced -- whether it was hacked through institutions or procured via other means.
The website claims that the database that¡¯s collected is provided by students based on their interest in various portals and also possess student consent. The site also touts to have verified the data through various mediums and is perfect for ¡®lead generation and promotional work.¡¯
It is also crucial to understand that, chances are this could all be a scam and that there might not be any data to offer. We¡¯ve contacted the website, posing as a professor looking for student data. We will update the copy if there are any further advancements.
Also Read: Hackers Got Into An Old Reddit Database And Snagged The Account Passwords Of Early Users
Reddit: Able-Confusion
Student database on Amazon?
While researching for this study, I stumbled upon several tweets on Twitter where student data for several states like Nagaland, Bihar and others were being sold on Amazon in the garb of academic books.
Some miscreant is selling 'Nagaland Students Database' on Amazon. If the veracity of the claim is to be believed then this is illegal on so many levelshttps://t.co/PcpCAzKkoy
¡ª O Jungio (@OJungio) June 18, 2021
Also Read: Secrets Of 90 Crore Users Are Out, As Whisper App's Data Wasn't Ever Private
The captions stated that the buyers would receive Google Drive links of the database. However, when I went to check those posts myself, I couldn¡¯t find them.
Hey @amazon @amazonIN It is illegal to be sell user data. How is someone using your site to sell student data? @AmazonHelp So many listings like this
¡ª Lionel Faleiro????? (@sandmaxprime) June 18, 2021
Bihar Students Database (Class X, CBSE, 2019-2020) - Downloadable Google Drive Link (Excel Format) https://t.co/Vkfkpcw7cp pic.twitter.com/MqpConITld
A little more digging on Reddit revealed a comment by one user @punsnjabs who said to have connected with Amazon and notified them about these products which resulted in the removal of them from the listing as well as banning of the seller from the platform. There isn¡¯t much evidence to this claim, so I¡¯d take this with a grain of salt if I were you.
